"If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!" - Kierkegaard

From sickbay...players keep telling me they're optimistic a deal will get done, while owners tell me they have no confidence in that.

We've seen the reports of owners privately saying that they're closer to a deal than what's being presented to the public. And the reports of the players still being optimistic and putting together creative ideas. To me, it really sounds like the league needs to drop the Draconian contract restrictions, and a deal could be done within a few days.

That said, I'm still not holding my breath...

*edit* To clarify, some contract restrictions are needed, for sure. But not the "All-or-nothing" set that the league is demanding. Work with the PA, find something that works for both sides. It CAN be done.

People asking whether CBA talks are in a deep freeze. Well, NHL won't meet for sake of meeting. Need something from players.

This is ridiculous. Just keep getting in a room together! Stop putting requirements on even meeting. At the very least have S. Fehr and Daly meet and leave Don and Gary out of it. They can have their pissing contest somewhere else.

If they actually have nearly settled the 50/50 and the make whole provisions but now it's contract restrictions holding things up, then this lockout has gotten even stupider than I ever thought it could have.

The only thing the league really needs to fight for is the restrictions that eliminate back diving contracts.

Harrison Mooney with Puck Daddy has an interesting article up about how Mitt Romney's campaign used the Bruin's stadium (TD Garden) for their election night HQ on a night that was supposed to be the B's home opener.

While the post is about 50/50 between lockout and politics, it provides a little bit of insight into Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs. Long story short, Jacobs knew that the space would be available, even before the games were officially cancelled, while the League's much-vaunted 50/50 deal was still on the table...

You see, Election Day in the U.S. was Nov. 6. Also scheduled for that date, for most of the calendar year: The Boston Bruins' home game against the Minnesota Wild that evening.

In fact, if the owners' Oct. 16 offer to end the NHL lockout and salvage an 82-game season had gone through, the game versus the Wild would have become the Bruins' home opener.

The Romney campaign told staff and volunteers they would be working from TD Garden on Election Day as early as Oct. 22, when the space was mentioned on a training call...

This is four days after the NHL rejected the NHLPA's trio of counter-offers, but also four days before the NHL closed the books on playing games on this date.

Even with an offer still on the table -- one that purported to be a sincere, last-ditch attempt to save the 82-game season -- Jeremy Jacobs was quite confident that the Bruins wouldn't be staging their home opener on Election Night.

Fair warning. Yes, I just linked to a page that has some political discussions. That said, I only did so because it directly involves Hockey/NHL/Lockout. Politics is still a NO-GO issue on LGW, so keep discussion hockey related only.

That's really a moot point. Even if the '50/50' offer from the league was accepted by the players, the league had already stated that a full 82 game season was possible, starting on 11/1 I believe. Even if Jacobs wasn't close to negotiations, he could still rest assured that game would have been rescheduled. On the other hand, he shouldn't have had any indication a game wouldn't be rescheduled to that same date.

Does anyone care about hockey anymore? I've found I don't really miss it, and I didn't think I'd feel that way. All of these clowns have so completely soured the sport for me, if it comes back, I won't watch it. I'll follow the games to some extent here on LGW, but I sure as hell won't go out of my way for it. I did the same thing after the MLB strike in 1994, and it took quite a long time to re-ignite my love for baseball.

Grown adults, all making a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge sum of money well beyond that of their fans, arguing over who should get more money.

"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but *actually* from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff." -- The Doctor

Daren Millard ‏@darenmillardPer Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, "Don (fehr) called Gary (Bettman) and suggested he didn't know how to proceed from here.Gary suggested that perhaps a moratorium might be in order. We have not heard back.

Greg Wyshynski's take on the NHL's two week break proposal. I rather like the last paragraph...

Hopefully this just another ploy to get the players back to the table; otherwise, we'd be very interested to hear how a League that's been selling the idea that time is running short to save the season would propose to sit back, watch Blu-Ray box sets of "The Wire" and lay off the CBA talks for 14 days.